There is something almost Shakespearean about the way it has come to this. Remember where it began – on that grey July morning, with Keir Starmer striding confidently up Downing Street, pledging not just to renew British politics but cleanse and purify it.
Now the man who vowed to restore standards, dignity and trust to our nation stands finally, and fully, exposed.
A liar. A charlatan. A capricious fool.
The revelation that Peter Mandelson failed his formal vetting by the security services prior to his elevation as Washington ambassador is, on one level, staggering.
That Keir Starmer forced through Mandelson’s appointment to such a highly sensitive post, then misled parliament, the Press and the British people about the true facts, elevates this to a scandal on a par with Profumo’s perfidy.
But on another level it was all too predictable. It was clear back in March – when Starmer refused six times to answer Kemi Badenoch’s simple question about whether he’d spoken to Mandelson before his appointment – that the PM feared this was the crisis that would terminate his premiership.
And now, despite the misplaced mobile phone and deleted messages, we can all see why. Last year Starmer stated to Parliament directly and unequivocally that ‘full due process was gone through’ in relation to Mandelson’s vetting, and that as a result he retained full confidence in him.
What’s more, he claimed that it was the same process routinely undertaken for all new ambassadorial appointments.
Yesterday’s revelations confirm beyond doubt that statement was a clear, cold, calculating lie. Not only had the initial vetting been conducted – on the Prime Minister’s orders – by two of Mandelson’s close personal friends (the PM’s chief of staff Morgan McSweeney and communications director Matthew Doyle).
But the subsequent formal vetting process had red-flagged Mandelson. And according to the Labour-supporting Guardian, which broke the story, Foreign Office officials had to invoke a rarely used procedure to override the vetting decision.
But it’s not just the lies. As I’ve been writing for several weeks, since the Mandelson scandal broke, and MPs voted to force the Government to release all the documents relating to this sordid affair, Starmer and his aides have been involved in a comprehensive and concerted attempt to cover up the truth.
Set aside the convenient theft of McSweeney’s mobile, along with the loss of reams of sensitive and pertinent messages it contained. Thousands of other emails and messages have ‘disappeared’. Relevant briefing documents have been deleted. And as The Guardian also reported, ‘senior government officials have been considering whether to withhold from parliament documents that would reveal that Mandelson was not given vetting approval from security officials’.
Yet even the lies and the cover-up pale into insignificance compared to the enormity of what the latest Mandelson disclosure reveals. I spoke to a senior member of the Whitehall security establishment. They said: ‘Do you realise how rare it is for someone to fail vetting? Whatever it was, it must have been something really major.’
Over the past few months the focus has obviously been on Mandelson’s relationship with Jeffrey Epstein. But as The Mail on Sunday reported back in February, the security services of several countries have long been expressing interest and concern over Mandelson’s political and business relationships.
He was targeted by Russian intelligence as far back as 2004. And he was warned of this fact by senior British and EU intelligence officers during his time as European Trade Commissioner.
Mandelson wasn’t just a blackmail risk. He was someone being actively pursued by agents of hostile foreign states.
Despite this, Keir Starmer insisted on forcing him through the system, into Washington and one of the most sensitive posts in the British diplomatic service. Indeed, one of the most scandalous parts of this whole episode is that the Prime Minister insisted on announcing Mandelson’s appointment before the proper vetting process had been completed.
Downing Street is claiming – incredibly – that the Prime Minister had no knowledge of the red flags that had been raised against his prospective ambassador. But as I and my colleague Glen Owen wrote in September last year: ‘The security services produced a single report on any potential issues raised by Lord Mandelson’s appointment. After sharing information with their opposite numbers in the US State Department, a number of “red flags” were raised.’
In an echo of the so-called Dodgy Dossier which paved the way to war in Iraq, sources claimed that the objections were watered down. Yet when this was put to Downing Street, it was categorically denied.
Those denials have been completely undermined by yesterday’s revelations. Keir Starmer is a Prime Minister subsisting on complete and utter denial.
His fears about the Mandelson problem were entirely justified. From the moment this scandal broke – with the first sickening emails that showed the true nature of Mandelson’s relationship with the world’s most notorious paedophile – there was only ever going to be one outcome. This was, inevitably, going to be the scandal that brought Sir Keir down.
Last night I spoke to a furious Labour MP, who channelled the anger of many of his colleagues.
‘He must have known this was going to come out,’ he raged, ‘and yet he didn’t care. He kept sending us all into the TV stations and onto the broadcast studios to try and defend him. He’s killed us.’
He has. Because no amount of denial will provide Starmer with the refuge he seeks.
Let’s consider the enormity of what has occurred. The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom attempted to leverage a man who was a major national security risk into the most sensitive diplomatic posting in the West. He did so despite the objections of the security services. He overrode the tried and trusted processes for such an appointment. He lied to Parliament about it. And then, when ordered to release the documents that would have exposed his lies, he tried to cover them up.
Yes, the PM’s pre-election pledge to bring dignity and honour back into politics was torn up soon after he entered office. But who could have anticipated what has emerged since then? Surely even he must now recognise the reality.
There is no way out now. The Mandelson Affair is reaching its denouement. The deceit, the deception and duplicity have caught up with Keir Starmer.
He was elected on a vow to clean up British politics. But there is only one way the Prime Minister can deliver on that promise. He must resign.
